Exhaling! BTW, aren't 'branding' irons painful?

Okay, I'm behind already!! Summer Reading at CPL had everybody involved -- from seriously lame acting from staff members in our Fairy Tale Theatre production of "Gold Miner's Daughter" (if only we'd had some really cheesy background music!) to building "Can-a-Lot" (the theme was "A Midsummer Knight's Read"), in addition to newsletters, Facebook page updates, new computer classes, and just the regular ol' library stuff, the weeks were busy, but sailed by. Now, it's done, and we can take a breather: till Fall semester starts! Sigh! Lerner & Loewe tunes are still swimming in my head, but, what the heck! I even gave "Shakespeare" some new info to take home with him: he didn't know The Bard has his own private call number! That's 822.33, dontcha know?
 
Out with the old, in with a new Library system, and about 40-50 new libraries added to that -- this should be interesting. We'll have to see what it all entails: will we need new cards ... re-do our informational brochures ... change our letterhead ... what ? And September is "Library Card Sign-Up Month," so with school starting back, we'll pick up more new patrons. And the hits just keep on comin'!

Okay, okay, "personal brand" .... what does that mean? Do I create a symbol? A logo? A slogan? What just screams "Me?" My email signature is Frederick Douglass' quote: "Once you learn to read, you are forever free."  I firmly believe that! Of course, one of my favorite cartoon characters is "Dogbert" (from the twisted mind of Scott Adams), the "Deputy of Common Sense," -- O, for the authority to arrest people who lack common sense! For starters, both the US Congress and the Illinois General Assembly would be emptied -- I'm just sayin'! "Out! Out! You demons of stupidity!"  Hmmmm, that could be my slogan! Nah. Copyright laws and all that.

I have to say, though, the Douglass quote IS more me -- empowerment. Anybody can walk into a library (or anywhere else) and find anything they want, with a little help, if you know what you're looking for. Back in my grade school years, we always had Library Day, and my class would file down the hall and down the stairs to the school library, where Mr. Jack Hackenbrock, (what a moniker!) our red-headed librarian, would regale us with the ins/outs of the Dewey Decimal System, astounding factoids -- like what's the diff between AM/FM? Why are some TV/radio stations K and others W? Y'know, stuff like that -- and how to navigate the card catalog. I discovered from my Library Day experiences, that I was an information JUNKIE -- something, anything is bound to catch my attention, and I'm gonna wanna know more. Did that make me want to become a librarian? Not necessarily, but it did turn me into a voracious reader, who, for some ridiculous reason, developed a reputation for knowing a lot of stuff. (How DO these rumors start?) The upshot is, my family and friends think it was inevitable that I should work in a library! So, what do I do with this rep? I conduct 'Quickie-in-house-on-the-spot-Empowerment-Workshops" -- my way of saying, I help people find what they're looking for THEMSELVES. This is a Miller/Gatewood thing: my family is not a hand-holding-here-let-me-do-it-for-you kinda mob. If I ran across a word I didn't know or understand in something I was reading? Mom: "Look it up. Sound it out." Dad: "Read something else in the newspaper besides the funnies." Christmas and birthday gifts? Sometimes, toys, games, dolls, transistor radio, Easy Bake oven, clothes--that kinda nonsense. But every year? A dictionary, thesaurus, almanac, and money to buy goodies from the Arrow Book Club (back in the day when the highest priced paperbacks were like 75 cents)! Loved that Arrow Book Club!!  Yep, I get it from my parents, God bless 'em!

One thing that bugs me to no end is able-bodied, but helpless people: those are the ones I'm after! Youngsters have way more info at their fingertips than I did back in the day. I realize that school cutbacks have made Library Day a quaint relic of the past, but, I cannot describe the pain I get when   college kids wander through here and have NO idea what to do with a library card catalog, or even how to begin to search for an item! They think libraries are supposed to be like bookstores, with all the books that start with A in one section, and so on: COME ON, PEOPLE!!! Melvil Dewey went through great pains to get you thinking BROADDDDDDDLY! If you can't come up with the title or the author, think ... subject. Think like a landmark driver, 'what's it close to?' If you can get anywhere in the neighborhood, I can help you find it: the FIRST time. Afterwards, you walk alone.

I am "Empowah Range-ah!"

Once you learn how, you are forever free to fly solo. Here's to you flying frogs!

I Annalium 1:1 (or "Froggy's first post")

I work in a library, surrounded by written material--some in languages other than English. I've studied French, and currently studying Spanish and Italian. I've learned that the study of Latin seems to be the jumping off point for most languages, hence the Latin title.

Somehow, a frog got into my apartment a few years ago, and by making the mistake of telling my co-workers about it, people now bring me frog stuff, hence, the reclining, reading amphibian. He was found resting on our library book drop one morning--go figure! Then, of course, there are Jonathan London's "Froggy" series kids books (Froggy, who seems to have a more active social life than I do at times!!), which are amusing coffee break books -- save Froggy's noxious penchant for noshing bowls of flies!

A library frog blog? Well, why not? "Froggy" has all the earmarks of being a professional -- he's so well-rounded! -- and he does need to develop his talents (he's spread a little thin, with all his activities!), so as he reclines and reads, suppose we help fine-tune his list, and help him acquire some new, useable skills.